Erik spent endless hours trying to cop the licks of those great rock drummers.
During his this formative time he was lucky enough to be accepted as a student by the great Richard Moore at Drum Quarters in Duluth.
He set a great example with his deep appreciation of the art and knowledge of many different styles.

Upon graduation, he traveled to the University of Minnesota in Duluth to widen his musical knowledge.

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Rock and roll was still calling to Erik and when the phone rang to leave Duluth and join the original rock band the Throwbacks, he couldn't resist.
They had been one of his favorite Twin-Cities bands since he snuck into backwoods bars as a teenager to see them.

From grunge to swing to rock and Americana, Erik has played with dozens of Twin Cities bands over his career.
A founding member of the award-winning Kurt Jorgensen band, he enjoyed many years of success with this mid-western mainstay.
Steve Clarke and the Working Stiffs provided a chance to swing, something Erik had wanted to try since college.

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Erik is a busy recording musician and studio owner with numerous commercial and video game titles to his credit.He enjoys working with singer-song writers and collaborating with the production forces of Musik Arkaid and Airborne Audio.

Now coming full-circle, Erik has joined forces with Arch Allies to dig deeper into the grooves of those great records by REO, Styx, and Journey.

From as early as he can remember, Erik was fascinated by drummers.
From the school band to the concert stage, all he wanted to do was bang on the drum all day.

Growing up in rural Minnesota, bands like REO Speedwagon, Styx, Journey and Led Zepplin filled the airwaves.
Erik spent endless hours trying to cop the licks of those great rock drummers.
During his this formative time he was lucky enough to be accepted as a student by the great Richard Moore at Drum Quarters in Duluth.
He set a great example with his deep appreciation of the art and knowledge of many different styles.

From grunge to swing to rock and Americana, Erik has played with dozens of Twin Cities bands over his career.
A founding member of the award-winning Kurt Jorgensen band, he enjoyed many years of success with this mid-western mainstay.
Steve Clarke and the Working Stiffs provided a chance to swing, something Erik had wanted to try since college.

...

Erik is a busy recording musician and studio owner with numerous commercial and video game titles to his credit.

Musician Erik Swenson has found some commercial success with ... commercials.

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But Swenson still gets to experience his dream in 60-second flashes of reality.

Swenson is a drummer who plays in several local bands and manages the Music-Go-Round store in Woodbury.While waiting to break through, he has found a valuable side gig playing drums on commercial jingles.

"It's a different way of getting my drums on the air," Swenson says.

Swenson gets paid a one-time studio session fee - he says he can make $700 or more for recording several commercials.The ads rarely remain very long on the air; a couple of weeks "and then they're gone forever," Swenson says.

While it's not exactly art ("I should never use the word art with jingles; they're not art," he says), they help pay the rent, connect him to a network of other musicians and provide at least a small amount of ego gratification.

"We just did a whole string of commercials, four or five in the last few weeks," Swenson says."I honestly don't know what all of them are going to be.Most of the time, we're flying blind.When I finally hear it on the radio, it's, 'Hey, that's me on the drums.' "

Swenson also hears his wife on the radio.

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Swenson says lots of musicians think recording jingles would be easy work, but when he first broke into the business, he discovered he had much to learn.

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"In a four-minute song, you have plenty of time to think of the next section," Swenson says."But jingles are verse, chorus, solo, out-chorus and endings - all in 60 seconds.I had to learn a style of playing that had to be more precise, hard-hitting and simple yet flashy."

Complicating the matter: Swenson was called to serve on a jury in a murder case.

"We were stuck there all day, except for an hour at lunch," he says.

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On a recent Thursday evening, Swenson and Brown were at Borne's Richfield studio to record a jingle for a home-improvement company.

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It was a small session; the only other player besides Swenson was guitarist Randy Casey (currently playing with the Hillbilly Voodoo Dolls, among other bands).

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Borne tells bassist Thompson, "Keep it funky," tells Swenson, "You're just real simple on the drums," and within less than five minutes, the band is ready to record a take.

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"It got harder when we knew Reuben had to leave in 10 minutes," Swenson joked.

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"I made a jingle in a minute and four seconds once," Swenson says."Other ones take us pretty much a whole afternoon.But now we can knock 'em out faster."

Swenson says he'd love to be able to make enough money at recording jingles to give up some of his other jobs.For now, however, home-improvement ads are just part of the mix.

If you want to hear Erik Swenson play the drums, catch him with Blonde Faith.